Sir, – I refer to Ciaran Hancock's article "That sound you hear is the glass ceiling starting to crack" (Business, November 20th).
Hancock refers to the coalition negotiations currently taking place in Germany and highlights specifically the welcome news that it appears that both the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democrats have agreed on a 30 per cent quota for women on boards of listed companies from 2016. He adds that it would be hard to imagine any issue forming part of coalition negotiations in an Irish programme for government.
In fact the Labour Party and Fianna Fáil in the 1992 Programme for a Partnership Government, agreed to establish a minimum of 40 per cent representation of each gender in direct appointments to the boards of semi-State bodies. And in 2011, Labour and Fine Gael included a commitment to tackle the gender imbalance on State boards in the Programme for Government, again with a target of 40 per cent.
While Ireland still has a long way to go in terms of gender equality in the commercial and political spheres, approximately 34 per cent of positions on State boards in recent years have been held by women. It’s not only in Germany that this issue is being discussed. – Yours, etc,
SINEAD AHERN
Chair Labour Women,
Ely Place,
Dublin 2.